British Anti-Americanism

Christopher Hitchens, the Anglo-American commentator, has argued that anti-Americanism still has a powerful right-wing component. ‘The Cold War succeeded in fixing the idea of anti-Americanism as a syndrome of the left. Forgotten was the long hatred of the old right for the American idea. But now we can see its resurgence in the applause from all of the old and new fascist parties for the attacks of September 11.’37Notwithstanding this, the ideological rejection of what the United States is comes overwhelmingly from the left in Britain today. It is this ideological rejection that is the major motivator for British political anti-Americanism in both its foreign policy and explicitly ideological forms. Much contemporary anti-Americanism is motivated by an opposition to what those objecting to the United States believes it stands for – namely individualism and laissez-faire capitalism. The United States is the embodiment of what those objecting to it perceive as what is wrong with Britain. In a world where the alternatives have seen to fail, raging at the United States has become a safe way of raging at capitalism without having to provide one’s own answers. This raises the question, why has the rejection of capitalism such an enduring appeal, why is it so incorrigible?

Michael Mosbacher is the Director of the Social Affairs Unit, an independent social policy think tank based in London. He is the author of Marketing The Revolution: The New Anti-Capitalism and the Attack upon Corporate Brands. (London, 2002).

1M. White, ‘Blair battles on after record rebellion’, The Guardian, 19thMarch 2003.

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